Mars
by dragonkeeper19600
Summary: Armada verse. The episode "Mars" from the view points of some of the characters. Some OCs. I uploaded this one again to fix some stuff. Complete.
1. Frustration

Frustration

**Frustration **

Swindle

I spent the first part of today sitting on Starscream's back, while he ran around like an idiot pretty much leveling an entire valley to the ground. And don't tell me that valleys are already leveled _below_ the ground. I hate being corrected.

It's times like these that make me think that it sucks to be a minicon. It really, honestly _sucks_.

If you're new to the whole minicon thing, I'd better enlighten you. A minicon looks like an ordinary transformer, but we're a lot smaller, around the size of a twelve-year-old human. We can link up with a larger transformer and boost their power. We call the transformer we link up with our bulk.

Why do we call them that you ask?

Well, they're kinda big, you see. They might step on you if you get too close.

So yeah, you might have guessed already, but Starscream's my bulk. Or partner, if you ask the autobots. If you ask Starscream, he'll say that he's my _master_. Which is actually the most accurate name, to be perfectly honest. Don't give me that look. I can't help it if I'm cynical.

So anyway, him being my bulk basically means I'm stuck with him for life, whether I like it or not. Yup, bonded for the rest of my life. (Or his life, whichever comes first.) It's not like I chose him either. He's just the one who grabbed me first. Whoever gets to a minicon and wakes it up first owns it. That's the Rule. So, unless he gets killed in a way that won't kill me too, or he breaks the link with me himself (which will never happen) I have to follow him anywhere. Even to the edge of the universe if necessary.

You might be thinking that that's the reason I said that being a minicon sucks. It's not. Believe it or not, there's a worse part. Being attached to Starscream means that I'm a part of him. I can see inside his mind. I can remember his experiences through his eyes. I feel all his emotions, his sadness, his joy, his rage (oh yeah, there's a lot of that), everything.

Just my luck I'd end up with someone as emotionally shattered as Starscream.

And the strongest feeling as he rampaged through the valley was hatred.

For him. For the one called Megatron. The one who ruined everything.

The one who caused Starscream to join up with the autobots out of pure spite.

Sometimes the hate was so strong that it made me wanna scream and destroy too, even though this feeling technically wasn't even mine. Instead, Starscream is the one who is tearing the place apart in order to feed his hatred.

And it wasn't working. When you try to satisfy hate, it only builds, apparently. Like some kind of warped cycle.

Starscream's hatred was so strong that he even sided with the autobots so that he could destroy Megatron. The problem for him was that the autobots are all about saving us minicons.

I'd care about that, if I hadn't already been grabbed by a decepticon.

Recently, the autobots had had to practically drag Starscream away from Megatron on the lunar base. (Lucky for him.) In case you're slow on the uptake, that's the reason he was so mad.

Plus, it's not like Starscream didn't have a perfectly good reason for hating Megatron. That is, if you count the beatings, the humiliations, the tauntings, not to mention blaming him for every decepticon failure and bringing him within an inch of his life. (If Demolisher hadn't shown up, who knows what would've happened.). What probably shattered him the most is that one time when Megatron issued an order for the decepticons to retreat without him and had left him to cry, all alone. In the rain. In the jungle. In the middle of a battle. While _they _ran off to go invade the autobot base. (He'll deny it if you ask him, but I was out there, and I saw him, and he was crying. Make no mistake.)

So, that brings us to the present.

Well, eventually Starscream wore himself out during his little meltdown and decided to sit down on a rock and cool off. The weapon he had been using is called the Starsaber. It's an awesome weapon made from three minicons joined together. He set down the sword, and it collapsed into the three, separate minicons, Sonar, Runway, and Jetstorm. I jumped off Starscream's back and joined them. I needed to stretch. Even though I was off of Starscream, I could still feel that link, that unbreakable bond that kept us together.

It was annoying. Such an annoying feeling.

We all gathered around Starscream as soon as we had stretched. Now, I don't know much about humans, but I'm pretty sure that if any of you had seen Starscream out there, you'd probably freak out. You'd run like crazy in the opposite direction, or maybe you'd be so scared that you couldn't move. (Um, you are human, right?) But, you probably wouldn't think that now because Starscream wasn't moving. He was sitting on a huge rock with his eyes cast down. He kept really quiet, like he was deep in thought.

The three other minicons seemed concerned. I did too, even though I hate to admit it. "Starscream, are you quite alright?" asked Sonar. (He's got a British accent; that's how he talks.)

_What a stupid question_, I thought. Does he look okay? Out loud, I said, "You need to chill, okay?" (That's how _I _talk. Deal with it.)

At that moment, we all heard voices.

"Hey, that's dangerous!"

"Yeah, Starscream's a little out to lunch right now. Uh, look out!"

Sonar, Jetstorm, Runway, and I looked over. I just mentioned that if any humans had been watching, they would have run scared. Well, it turns out that some humans _were_ watching. For some reason, a couple of really irritating human kids follow the autobots around. Three of them had been gathered around on a cliff above, and they had seen everything. Two males and one female. The two guys had gotten the message: "Stay away." The girl, however, was coming this way.

What was that girl's name anyway? Alex? Kelly? Whatever.

While the two boys were back by the cliff cowering. The girl was throwing off their concerns like there was nothing to worry about. I started to think that maybe the damage to the valley wasn't as bad as I thought. I looked over to check.

Turns out that I was right. The valley spreading out below us was totally trashed. Starscream had reduced some of the smaller surrounding cliffs to rubble. There wasn't a single rock that he had left in one piece. The whole place gave off the impression that a typhoon or a cyclone had passed through it.

_That girl must be nuts!_ I thought to myself. I was starting to consider pushing her back to where she had been before, for her own sake, when she spoke up.

"Hey, Starscream!" she called.

"Hmm?" Starscream asked, looking up.

Oh _sure_, Starscream. Talk to the pretty human girl. Who cares about minicons anyway? Sheesh…

I guess I should describe the girl for you. She was about a head taller than I am, which means that she was puny compared to Starscream. She had green eyes and short, brown hair that didn't even go to her shoulders. She was about a year younger than the two boys behind her, but I got the feeling she was smarter than they were.

Why she was over here was beyond me.

The other minicons and I tried to give her some kind of warning, but she took no notice. She just stood where she was, looking up at Starscream.

"Leave me alone!" Starscream shouted, being his usually charming self. The four of us got the message and ran for cover in a panic. We'd learned from experience that when Starscream says to leave him alone, the smartest action to take is to _leave him alone_. She still didn't leave, though.

_Whatever kid_, I thought, _It's you're funeral_. "C'mon Starscream. I know why you're upset," she said. (Well duh, you have to be some kind of retard to not know that.)

"Yeah, it's all about the minicons," he muttered, as if to himself.

"Huh?" she asked, not comprehending.

"I want to be left alone now!" he said in his harsh voice, right before he got up and walked away. Probably sick of all the attention. The girl stayed behind, looking dejected.

"Jeepers," she said, staring at the ground, "You go out of your way to try ad help somebody, and all they do is bite your head off!"

_Consider yourself lucky kid_, I thought, _At least you're still alive_. I didn't hang around to watch any more. At first, when the girl had escaped completely unscathed, I had felt a rush of relief. Now, that feeling had turned to disappointment. Starscream hadn't hurt her at all! This wasn't like him.

I ran after Starscream, who was walking rather slowly. "Hey, wait up!" I called. Even though I hated the bound, I didn't want to be left out here in the desert. I jumped up (really high) and latched onto Starscream.

Immediately, I was assaulted by his thoughts and memories. I felt his emotions. None of what I was feeling was what I had expected.

For starters, the staggering hatred and anger I had felt in him before was mostly gone. There was a slight grudge in its place, but there was also a quiet thoughtfulness. Where was this emotion coming from? I didn't have to wait long to find out.

There was one image in his brain. Only one. I saw in his head, a picture of the girl that had spoken to him earlier. In his mind, she was smiling up at him just as she had been doing a second before. That image was all he could see, was all he could think about. Don't believe me? Suit yourself.

_What gives?_ I communicated to him, _Still thinking about that human girl?_

_Shut up_, he replied, _I didn't ask you to follow me!_

_Well! _I retorted. But of course, I shut up after that.

Thoughts of the earth girl stayed in his head until we reached the autobot base.


	2. Wonder

Wonder

Wonder

Supernova

Once, it was humankind's ultimate goal to send one of its own to Earth's moon. It was its mission, its dream, for mankind to take that first glorious step onto the barren ground of a faraway land.

I have no idea what the big hurry was, because the moon isn't really that great.

It's completely cold and devoid of life. Only a transformer could survive here, and not even us decepticons would even want to. In spite of that, we were using the earth's moon as our base. We thought the autobots would never be able to find us here. We were wrong.

The darkness and coldness of the place did nothing for us now, except remind us of our failure. We had picked the most desolate, most faraway place possible from Earth, and we had still managed to get robbed of every single minicon we had. The sole exceptions were our partner minicons, who had been with us when the autobots arrived.

Oh, and the oh-so-charming lunar scenery? Megatron was outside destroying it at that very moment.

He had taken the Requiem Blaster and was using it to demolish the terrain surrounding the minicon ship we used as our base. It was quite a spectacle, actually. Demolisher, Cyclonus, Wheeljack, and I were all gathered around a large, rather gaping hole in the side of the ship, watching. Why exactly, I wasn't really sure. We were bored, I guess.

While Megatron was outside pretty much laying waste to the moon, I spent this time to think about some things, like the minicons, for instance. I'm referring, of course, to the fact that the decepticons barely had any anymore, but it's not just that. For several weeks, the minicon radar had not been going off nearly as often as it used to. Minicon excursions became less and less frequent, until finally they just stopped altogether. It seemed official: "Planet Earth is out of minicons."

On top of that, the autobots now had all of ours. All the months we'd spent on Earth, gone to waste. Megatron was certain, everyone was certain, that the minicons were the key to winning the Cybertronian Wars. The minicons had the ability to boost our power tenfold. It was the whole reason we'd come to Earth, and the moon, in the first place.

Now that the autobots had nearly all of them, and there weren't anymore on Earth, all kinds of questions were being raised. Like: "So, now what should the decepticons do?" "Can we go home now?" "Is the war over?"

"Do we lose?"

That last one was the biggest. Everyone was wondering, including me. Did we lose? Had our leader failed us? We all had those questions, but nobody was quite suicidal enough to ask Megatron. We weren't that stupid.

As my thoughts continued, it occurred to me that it my be partially my fault that we were in the position we were in now. Of course, it was mainly Starscream's, but he might not have been able to lead the autobots here if it wasn't for me. Or maybe he would have. We'll never know now, will we?

I had known about Starscream's dilemma. I knew that Megatron and Thrust were plotting against him. I had witnessed the abuse and humiliation he'd gone though. So, I wasn't at all surprised when he rebelled and vowed to join the enemy. What did catch me off guard was my reaction.

I had been in the warp room working on… something; I don't even remember what it was now. Starscream had gone to the throne room moments before. Suddenly, I heard someone shouting and then a crash from the floor above. There were blasting sounds, like someone was firing shots. More shouting. Finally, Starscream ran into the room where I was.

I turned around. Starscream was at the door, staring at me with hate filled eyes. He looked positively deranged. I didn't recognize him. In his hand, he was wielding the Star Saber.

I knew he would not hesitate to kill me, judging by the way he looked at me. I stepped out of the way, not wanting to be sliced in half. He sped right past me without looking back.

I remember some other things, but I won't bore you with every little detail. One thing I will tell you is that Megatron ordered me to stop him, and I refused. It wasn't because I was afraid or anything. I just… felt like I shouldn't, that's all. Call it intuition or call it a silly whim. I don't care.

Then I did something even more daring.

Seeing that I wouldn't help him, Megatron started to stop Starscream himself. Without thinking, I held him back and shouted at Starscream to run. Run, I'd said, Run and don't look back. At the time I didn't consider the fact that what I was doing was completely insane; it just seemed right. I felt like Starscream should choose his own destiny and not have his fate decided for him.

Well, Megatron made me pay for that one. Severely. But that didn't matter really. In the end, I healed. Eventually. And even though it was, arguably, Starscream's doing that got me punished, I didn't blame him. Some people might have, but I didn't.

'It's because you worry about him,' a familiar voice stated in my head.

I started slightly as the voice of my minicon, Racket, pulled me out of my trip down memory lane. 'Why do you say that?' I asked telepathically.

'Because you couldn't kill him. You told Megatron you were going to finish him off, and you didn't,' he replied.

That was true, I had to admit. I had promised Megatron that I would kill Starscream as punishment for leaving the decepticons. I figured I wouldn't have any difficulty doing it. After all, he was an autobot now. The enemy.

Except I couldn't. I couldn't do it. Of course, I dueled Starscream during the raid on our base, and I nearly defeated him. But when it came time to deliver the final blow, I hesitated. Starscream wisely chose that moment to escape.

Sometimes I wonder about myself. Why did I let Starscream go? Why couldn't I finish him off? I often think that I'm not like most decepticons.

Further more, I was annoyed at Racket for reminding me of that little incident.

'Do you have to be right about everything?' I asked him, slightly miffed.

'I apologize, M'lady,' he said courteously.

For some reason, Racket has always called me "M'lady." It was kind of flattering when we first met, but now it's just annoying. Racket knows that it bothers me, of course. That's probably why he's kept it up.

I turned my attention back to the lunar landscape that was being decimated right before our eyes. Suddenly, Megatron whipped out the Requiem Blaster and fired it. The pink blast hit a nearby mountain. There was a blasting noise and then a sort of a "pop," and the mountain was gone. It had ceased to exist, wiped off the face of the moon.

Cyclonus, who is not entirely right in the head, thought the whole ordeal was hilarious. He cackled insanely and said, "Megatron looks a little testy today, huh?" I really didn't understand what was so funny. No one knows, or really cares to know, how Cyclonus's mind works.

"Do you blame him?" came Demolisher's reply, "The autobots got away with all the minicons after the last battle, remember?" The two of them do this a lot: tell each other things they each already know. It's not a big deal.

From behind came footsteps. Loud, booming, metallic footsteps. Transformers are not known for being light on their feet. Then, a voice. It was a familiar voice, but I sometimes wish it wasn't because I absolutely loathe the person it belongs to. Thrust. "Any of you ladies going to do any work today, or are you going to stand around chatting with one another?" he said hotly.

Demolisher turned around angrily, and I narrowed my eyes and looked behind me. Thrust was standing right behind us, trying to look important. It wasn't just Demolisher and I that hated him; I honestly don't think there is a single person in the base that can stand him. He had been honored by the decepticons for being a successful military tactician, so when the decepticons began to have a rather troubling losing streak, Megatron had called him in from Cybertron. Since coming here, however, his success rate has plummeted, and he was a failure in our eyes. And, on the one occasion when his planning proved successful, guess who had gotten all the credit. Not us, risking our lives in the front line of battle, but Thrust, who always hung around in the back, out of the autobots' range of fire.

His appearance was also rather ridiculous. His alternate mode was a jet, but when he transformed, instead of the nose cone folding down below his chest, like it did with Starscream, it folded up to become part of his head, giving him the rather comical appearance of always wearing a dunce cap. It suited him.

Earlier on the same day Starscream left the decepticons, he had punched Thrust into a wall and beat him rather violently. No one, not even Megatron, had protested. Wheeljack had raised a small note of concern, but not even he had moved to save Thrust.

The very same Thrust was now standing behind us, glowering like we were less than dirt.

"If we're short of minicons, then you're the ones responsible for building the spaceship. Now why don't you get to work?" he yelled.

"Huh?" asked Cyclonus, like the whole concept of work was completely new to him. "Boy, just when we had something really good to gossip about!" he continued, chuckling madly. Again, I really don't understand what was so funny.

"Gossip? Really, Cyclonus? What are you, an old woman?" I asked. I followed them anyway. The spaceship was important, after all. It was our ticket off this wasteland back home. Once we finish it, Megatron had promised, we will return to Cybertron and destroy the autobots once and for all.

Cyclonus had actually had the nerve to ask, "If the plan all along was to go back to Cybertron, then what the heck did we come here for?" Megatron had responded by slapping him across the face and calling him an imbecile.

We had been using the minicons to construct the ship, but since we didn't have any anymore, the task fell onto ourselves. Joy.

As I walked down the hall, I turned around to see if Thrust would help us build the ship. I seriously doubted that he would, because the bot never does any work at all, but it never hurts to check. I turned around just in time to see Thrust run out of the hole in the wall and fly away. This struck me as odd, seeing as there was nothing out there but a gray wasteland and a slightly crazed Megatron. Then I began to feel nervous.

The truth is, lately I was starting to get a little concerned about Thrust's sanity. It was descending quicker than his success rate. It was a rather sudden, drastic change. Thrust had never been likeable, but we he had first arrived he had been calm, cool, and very sure of himself. I don't know if it was his multiple failures, a desperate need to prove himself, the corruption of power, or a combination of the three, but lately his voice had an extra note of shrillness and panic to it, his plans were getting more and more desperate, and he the way he spoke suggested he was not far from being reduced to a raving lunatic. To put it frankly: Thrust had gone off the deep end.

Just what was he up to, flying off by himself? I wondered. I shook my head and walked off, deciding that it didn't matter. There was nothing out there, after all. What harm could Thrust do on his own. And if he got lost among the rocks and duct, too bad. Besides, the ship was what really mattered now. To Cybertron and to victory.

The sooner we get off this rock, the better.


	3. Launch

Launch

Launch

Andrea

A deafening alarm sounded from every room of the autobots' base.

If you've ever been in the autobot base (which I highly doubt), chances are that you've probably gotten lost more than once. The place is absolutely huge. I guess it has to be to fit a team of autobots, the minicons, us kids, and one… uh… never mind. It was pretty impressive, I guess, that they have an alarm that can be heard from every room when each room is about the size of your whole house.

Anyway, as soon as it went off, everyone raced to the main control room to see what was the matter. When I ran in, the rest of the kids were already there. Alexis was sitting at the monitor pressing buttons with Rad, Carlos, Billy, and Fred all gathered around. I always thought that Alexis must be pretty smart to know how to work an alien computer. As for me, the only way I can tell a Mac from a Dell is by the little apple on the back. Sad, huh?

From right behind me came Optimus Prime, leader of the autobots. He nearly stepped on me in the process of getting in the room. I ran over to the monitor to see what everyone was looking at.

"What is it? What's going on?" he asked with some degree of urgency.

"We found another minicon Optimus!" shouted Rad, "It's a new one!"

"A new minicon?" asked Optimus.

"You serious?" asked Carlos, incredulous.

Both Optimus and Carlos were surprised. In all honesty, I was too. A new minicon alert? When was the last time we had gotten one of those? I thought there weren't any minicons left. We used to get one alert a day at least, but recently, there was nothing. Well, not anymore.

"Well, where is it Alexis?" asked Carlos.

"Hang on," she answered, looking frustrated, "I'm trying to find out, but something's not right." I checked the screen. Everything looked okay to me. Not that I know the first thing about computers or anything.

"Whattya mean?" asked Rad, who obviously couldn't spot the problem either.

"Well, it doesn't look like Earth's surface," she explained.

"The moon? Is it at the decepticon base where Megatron is?" came another voice. I whirled around. Holy smoke! That scared me! The voice belonged to Starscream. I hadn't seen him come in, and I still wasn't used to the idea of him staying with the autobots. It freaked me out.

Ever since he got here, I've been feeling kinda jumpy. I just can't see Starscream as one of the autobots. Some part of me is still flashing back to all those times he nearly KILLED US. There were a lot, trust me. I couldn't get over the fact: There was a decepticon in the base.

The whole situation also sounded kinda weird to me. From what

I'd heard, Starscream was mad at Megatron for betraying him. The guy is completely obsessed with destroying him once and for all. He didn't join us because he wanted to be a hero, and he wasn't pretending that that was the case, either. I almost felt like saying to him, "Congratulations, you've discovered what a jerk Megatron is. Took you long enough. Here's your medal."

I wasn't the only one who had this opinion. Hot Shot wasn't too thrilled about Starscream being here either. When he had showed up, Hot Shot had made it perfectly clear that he did not trust Starscream. He'd pointed out that Megatron was not above using whatever dirty trick was necessary to beat the autobots. And, of course, everyone remembered what happened with Sideways…

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't talk about Sideways. That guy still gives me the creeps.

Too bad for us, we were the only ones who were dead set against it. Alexis had been all for it, and the minicons… when he tried to leave, they had clung to him kinda desperately. You could almost hear them going, "No, don't leave! Take us with you!" In the end, Optimus had allowed him to stay.

Well anyway, back to the present. "No, it's not," said Alexis, answering Starscream's earlier question, "It looks like it's…" she let her voice trail off to push some more buttons.

"Totally bizarre," commented Rad. Then he asked, "What is it Alexis?"

"It… it looks like Mars! That new minicon's on Mars!" she answered. I was surprised, and I think everyone else was too. So there weren't any more minicons on Earth or the moon. We really were fresh out.

"Mars?" asked Billy.

"I'm not surprised," said Optimus. Well, that makes one of us.

"But that's in outer space," said Fred.

"No duh, Fred," I snapped. Honestly, Fred can be so dumb sometimes.

"Hey guys? Can I come with you? Please?" asked Carlos, putting on his please-please-please face. You might know the one I mean. You know, where you put your hands together and make your eyes real big. You might have used it while begging your mom for something. The autobots didn't go for it though.

"We can't go into outer space," stated Scavenger, shattering Carlos's hopes.

"For starters," added Hot Shot, agreeing with him, "None of us can even fly."

"But we can't abandon the minicon," mused Optimus.

"Sometimes you just gotta go," Billy pointed out.

"I gotta go," said Fred. He might have been agreeing with him, but you can never really tell with Fred.

It might sound weird, but both Optimus and Billy had a point. Even if no one could fly, there's no way we could leave the minicon on Mars. Every second we wasted made the minicon more vulnerable to the decepticons who, by the way, DID have soldiers that could fly. Plus, they'd be extra desperate to get a new minicon now. This was a real dilemma.

"Couldn't we just use the warp gate like we always do?" I asked.

"That wouldn't work," answered Red Alert in that professional tone of his. "The warp gate only works for locations that are on Earth. Unless there's another warp point set up on Mars, we're stuck here."

So much for that idea. "Man, that sucks," I said, frowning. I thought hard. Jetfire had a space shuttle as an alt-mode and was the only autobot we had that could fly. But that would mean only sending one person. Jetfire was good, but not that good. I didn't feel great about sending Jetfire to Mars by himself against multiple decepticons.

"Scavenger's right you guys," cut in Rad, "The only ones who can make it to Mars right now are Jetfire and Starscream."

Oh yeah. Forgot about that other guy.

For all my concern, and Rad's suggestion, Jetfire didn't seem worried at all. "Tch, I can handle this on my own," he bragged, "Outer space: no probs. All I gotta do is find the minicon before the decepti-dummys, right?" Optimus paused to think about that. I don't think he liked the idea of Jetfire going off alone any more than I did.

By the way, if you're wondering, "Is that guy Jetfire always so arrogant?" The answer is yes; yes he is. I like Jetfire, I really do. He can be a really nice guy if he wants to. It's just, he can be so full of it sometimes. You think he would've learned his lesson by now, but nope. Not a chance.

Oh, and did I mention? He'd second-in-command. So he's gotta have some sort of redeeming trait in there somewhere, I mean, if Optimus picked him to be second.

I don't think anyone but me saw Billy, Carlos, and Fred all exchange glances and walk away. Exactly where they were going, we'd find out in a sec.

"Here you go," said Hoist to Jetfire, handing him the Skyboom shield. The Skyboom shield, for those who don't know, is a big freaking shield that's bigger than I am, composed of three separate minicons. It can block anything, no matter how powerful. If you think that's lame, just imagine a big honking block of something that is bulletproof, laserproof, fireproof, lighteningproof, and any other proof you can think of. Now imagine having to run through a volley of arrows on an open space. Would you rather go with or without it? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Just as Jetfire was about to leave, Starscream ran up to him. "Wait a minute, I'm going too," he demanded. "Megatron will be there." Well, that explains it.

Despite lacking any kind of humanoid face, Jetfire still managed to look miffed. "Well who said you could come?" he snapped. Oh, boy. This should be good, I thought, looking over. I didn't want a fight scene or anything. I was just waiting for something interesting to happen.

"And why don't you just follow orders for once, huh?" he continued, "You're just gonna slow me down anyway." He didn't wait for Starscream to give an answer. He just started toward the launch pad.

"C'mon Jetfire, why don't you take him?" asked Hot Shot. Translation: "And get him the heck out of here!"

"I don't need the trouble," responded Jetfire without looking back. No translation is needed there. I can't say I didn't agree with him, but I also didn't like the way Starscream was staring after him, a look of utter determination on his face.

I switched my attention back to the computer screen that Alexis was monitoring. It was connected to the security cam at the launch station. Rad, Alexis, and I could watch the launch from there.

From the screen we saw Jetfire walk in. "Okay I am ready to roll!" he announced. Then he stopped and looked down. "Ah," he muttered, sounding kinda deflated.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Alexis. As if in response, the camera switched to a ground shot of Billy, Fred, and Carlos, who had apparently beat Jetfire to the launch room. Considering how tall Jetfire is and how fast he can walk, they must've run pretty darn fast to get there. And they all… looked completely ridiculous. The three of them were wearing space suits, the kind the astronauts at NASA might wear, complete with space helmets. Their suits, I noticed, lacked any kind of air supply. They were on the monitor waving and looking pretty happy.

The three of us were kind of embarrassed to know them. "Yikes," said Alexis, scratching her head. I couldn't have agreed more.

Rad, who always tries to be the optimist, pointed out, "At least they're wearing helmets this time." All the autobots, except for Jetfire, cracked up. Apparently, they thought this was pretty funny.

"C'mon, you gotta take us with you, man!" begged Carlos.

"Yeah, we wanna go into space too," agreed Billy.

"Quit wasting time. Get out of his way!" shouted Alexis over the intercom.

"Is that a no then?" asked Billy, oblivious.

"Aw, please?" asked Fred.

"NO!" we all shouted at once.

"Aw," whined Carlos, "But I wanted to be like a Rocket Man, man."

"Yeah, uh, sorry to disappoint 'cha," said Jetfire, not sounding sorry at all. More than anything, they guy probably wanted to fly away and be gone already.

"Well, at least bring us back a souvenir," said Billy, giving in.

"Like a Mars rock!" added Fred eagerly.

"Tch. Yeah, I'll, uh, see what I can do," said Jetfire. Again, he didn't sound very sincere. I closed my eyes and shook my head. I was ready to bet those guys weren't getting any rocks.

When I opened my eyes again, they nearly bugged out of my skull. Why you ask? On the monitor, I saw Starscream, who had asked for no one's permission by the way, walk right past Jetfire and stand in front of him on the launch pad. "Huh?" asked Jetfire, baffled.

"Outta my way!" snapped Starscream, "I'm taking off first!" Then, true to his word, he transformed into his jet mode and flew off without waiting for clearance. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. If there's one thing I'd learned about Jetfire, it's that you don't stand him up. Ever. He doesn't like it.

"Hey!" shouted Jetfire angrily. "Who does he think he is?!"

For some odd reason, the way Jetfire said those words made me grin. "He thinks," I said, bravely, "That he's the guy who's gonna beat Megatron."

I have to admit, even though I still didn't like Starscream, I could see he wouldn't let anything stand in his way. I could admire that kind of determination.

Jetfire muttered something under his breath, and took off after him. The search for the final minicon was on!


	4. Talk

Talk

Talk

Supernova

I was taking a break. I didn't really care what anyone else said to me. The spaceship would be finished soon enough. For now, I wanted a break.

I had managed to sneak away without anyone noticing, but they would be aware by the time I got back. They would all be furious. Well, too bad for them. There wasn't much they could do about it. No one would want to bother Megatron the way he was now, and I wasn't afraid of Thrust. I hated every ounce of him, mind you, but I wasn't afraid of him.

The ship was unusually silent as I walked through. Even my banging footsteps seemed muted. Not exactly settling. The whole place was dead, lifeless. Cyclonus was right, there really was no morale around here.

I was walking aimlessly, not really knowing what I was doing or why I didn't feel like working. I was restless, I suppose that's the word. I needed to get up and move around. Get my mind off of things.

Far down the hallway, a sound broke the unnerving silence. It sounded like… talking? Yes, that was it. Muted voices speaking. From the throne room.

That meant there were only two people who it could possibly be. Megatron and Thrust of course. I listened for another second. It was apparent that Megatron was trying to keep his voice down… without much success. Megatron has a rather loud, booming voice. It's hard to stifle it, even harder to ignore it. Without really thinking about it, I continued down the hall to the throne room. I wanted to hear what they were saying.

Racket instantly sprang to life in my head, protesting the whole way. 'No, go back,' he hissed, 'You shouldn't be doing this.' I ignored him. I really didn't know what I wanted to hear or even what I was expecting to hear, but I was curious.

Curiosity is fatal, you know.

I reached the entrance to the throne room and hung out to the side of the doorway, out of sight. Racket instantly became silent. I smiled. He was curious too.

"Have they left planet Earth yet?" I heard Megatron ask.

'They? Who's they?' Racket asked.

'Who else? The autobots, of course,' I responded, frowning. I wanted him to be quiet. He could read my mind; he should've known that.

"Yes sir," I heard Thrust respond. "They've sent Jetfire and Starscream to intercept the minicon."

Every word of that sentence confused me. For one thing, if there was a minicon, why in the name of Cybertron were we still here? We should've been gone to wherever the minicon was. Why was it that the alarm hadn't been sounded? Why were Thrust and Megatron trying to keep this a secret? What did they have to hide?

The other issue had to do with Starscream. It didn't seem likely that the autobots would send Jetfire alone with Starscream to go get a minicon. They didn't seem to trust Starscream that way… unless he had taken off without anyone's permission. Actually, now that I thought of it, that did seem like something he would do.

Starscream could be loyal, brave, and a fierce warrior, but he could also be brash and impatient. He acted out of sync with Megatron's orders on more than one occasion. He didn't like the idea of not getting his way, nor the idea that anyone could beat him.

And Thrust knew that he was basically alone.

A completely unexpected fear shot through me. Acting out of orders could prove to be a terrible mistake. What if he was killed out there today? Wait, why did I care? Now I was frustrated at myself. He's your enemy now, I kept telling myself, Your enemy.

'Don't try to fool yourself, m'lady. It's not working,' chirped Racket.

'Be quiet, Racket,' I communicated back, emphasizing the word "quiet."

While this was going on, they had continued to talk. "And Starscream has the Star Saber with him, does he not?" I heard Megatron ask.

"I've sent Tidal Wave to greet them. As soon as they get near the base, we will attack," Thrust responded. Immediately, the fear in me vanished. I felt fairly certain that Starscream could take Tidal Wave. Tidal Wave was somewhat slow… and dumb. Of course, he was five times my height and covered with guns, but even so…

Then I caught myself rooting for the enemy again and refocused.

"If what you have told me is true, Thrust, the three power weapons can combine into one, unleashing the ultimate power of the universe… and vanquishing the autobots forever," said Megatron.

What?

"Yes sir. Victory will soon be ours," Thrust agreed menacingly.

"Yesss… This is about to get interesting," Megatron murmured.

'No doubt of it,' I heard Racket comment. I sighed and began to walk away. Racket wasn't very good at not talking, it seemed. Not that it mattered now. They appeared to be done speaking.

'So what now?' he asked when we were further away.

'Now? Now, I go back,' I told him flatly. 'There's work to be done.'

'What? Wait, what about Starscream and Tidal Wave?'

I knew the real question wasn't about Tidal Wave. I sighed again. 'None of our concern. He can take care of himself. And if he can't, well, that's his problem,' I said.

'C'mon m'lady, you know you don't believe that.'

'I know no such thing.'

'But, but,' Racket stuttered, 'Don't you think it's strange that they would only send Tidal Wave? And what about what Thrust said, about the three weapons?'

'Thrust and Megatron obviously have some sort of plan. They know what they're doing. Probably. And I wouldn't worry about the weapons thing. It's only a myth, thought up to entertain restless protoforms,' I responded. I wouldn't put it past Thrust to try to apply a child's myth to a real war.

'No, no, it's true! But where did he learn that? That's what I want to know,' said Racket.

I hesitated. I didn't like the way Racket said that. Like he knew that all along and had never said anything.

I remembered that earlier today I had seen Thrust sneak away. Had he gone to a place that would tell him something like that? It didn't seem likely. There was nothing on this forsaken wasteland except for rocks and dust.

'Maybe he didn't find out by himself,' Racket said in response to my thoughts. 'Maybe someone told him.'

'Who?' I asked. There's no one out there.

There was a moment's silence. Finally, almost a mental whisper, 'There's Sideways.'

Sideways.

Now there's a thought. I shuddered without really knowing why. It was a possibility. The whole time Sideways had been with us, it was like he was constantly egging us on, whispering to go after some bigger prize. It seemed in character for him to tell Thrust something like this. But, not likely. 'Sideways wouldn't bother with a fool like Thrust,' I said, 'Thrust has nothing to offer him. Anyway, it doesn't matter.'

'But m'lady…'

'I said it doesn't matter. Alright, say I were to listen to you. What would you have me do?'

Racket was ready with his response. 'Go and help Starscream,' he answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'Excuse me?' I asked, taken aback.

'I mean it,' he answered earnestly. 'You know you want to.'

'No, Racket. That would be suicide.,' I told him firmly. Then , more quietly, 'I've done enough for him already.'

'But m'lady, what if…'

"We're NOT having this discussion," I snapped. Too late, I realized that I was speaking out loud. Conveniently, there was no one else around to hear my outburst. I turned and walked back to the repair bay where the ship was.

After all, they would be wondering where I was.


	5. Rough Start

**Rough Start**

Jetfire

"Man, where did that nutcase Starscream get to now?" I asked out loud. Bad habit, talking to myself. Better stop.

I was flying toward Mars, high speed. The red planet was getting closer by the second. Meteors, stars, and a whole lot of black spaces streaked by. As fast as I was going, though, I just couldn't catch up with Starscream, who was well outta sight by now. That cretin. Just who did he think he was, flying ahead of me like that. Me! Of all the…

"Aw, forget him!" I finally decided, talking out loud to myself again, "The minicon is what matters right now!" That idiot wasn't even supposed to be here, anyway. If those guys think I'm gonna baby sit him the whole time we were here, they had another thing coming. Starscream could take care of himself, probably. And if he managed to get himself killed out there, well, I was sorry.

Sorta.

After I landed, I sent my minicon, Comettor, out to search for the new minicon. I had to search a whole slagging planet for one little 'con, and I knew I needed his help. It's not a big deal. Comettor doesn't even consider it to be work. The little guy loves to wander around, and he was positively thrilled about having a whole planet to explore.

"There you are, little one," I shouted while he transformed and prepared to drive away, "Off you go! Find that minicon as quickly as you can. We're all counting on ya!" I dropped my gaze and added under my breath, "The clock is ticking for all of us…"

"Don't even worry about it Jetfire!" Comettor called, before he drove out of sight. Great, we've already got one minicon in on the search. So far so good.

"Still," I muttered, "I wish I knew where Starscream was." As much as I didn't like him, I also didn't like the idea of him running around by himself, getting into who knows what. Besides, there was bound to be trouble if I came back without 'im.

I looked over to the east. Against the red dust and sky of Mars, dark clouds were started to come in… from the ground. My audio sensors could hear harsh winds and the sound of sand flying around, high speed. I grimaced.

"And there's a storm comin' in," I said. That's just great. Not really the start I'd had in mind. Oh well, we were here already, we might as well finish the mission. We're autobots, and we never leave anyone behind. No time for complaints, there's work to be done.

Alexis

The static covering the screen was really annoying. As soon as Jetfire landed I had lost absolutely all visual contact with him. It was probably because of the weather, or the distance, or some combination of the two. Either way, this was bad. If something went wrong, there wasn't much I'd be able to do to help. I hated feeling helpless like this.

But I couldn't let anyone see I was frustrated. Too much to do. Anyway, there wasn't any real reason to panic yet. I was sure everything would be fine.

"Come in Jetfire. Do you read me? Over," I asked into the monitor.

"Yeah," came the response, "I'm reading ya, but you're breaking up real bad." The reply was faint and full of more static.

"We haven't got any more data for you, except that the minicon is there," I told him, "You're on your own."

"…I'm not…ma… out… in'."

"Come again? Over," I asked. There was no reply. Now we had lost the signal completely. Perfect. Still no time to panic. That wouldn't help anything. We just had to hope for the best.

"What did he say?" asked Rad, just a hint of anxiety in his voice.

"He's too far away," I told him, gloomily. Oh, I wished I could've called Starscream. Maybe that link would've worked. But I couldn't do that. Starscream's frequency wasn't compatible with this computer. It was for autobot use only. An annoying fact. I should talk with Red Alert about fixing that.

Starscream. Ever since he got here, everyone's been acting really strange. Every time he walks in a room, the atmosphere gets really intense. Andrea and Aurora are being the worst about it. Andrea always has this nervous look, like she's waiting for the axe to fall, and Aurora just runs out of the room. Just leaves. I don't understand it. I mean, Aurora was one of the people who spoke for Starscream, not against him. Hot Shot's trying to be better, but it's not fooling anybody. Starscream said he was on our side now, so why doesn't anyone trust him?

Another thing, Starscream isn't the bad guy everyone is making him out to be. Sure, maybe he used to be that way, but not anymore. He keeps saying that the only reason he's here is to defeat Megatron, but there's some good in him too.

I can give you a perfect example: The minicons. He's kinder to them than he is to anyone else, and they seem to really like him. More specifically was the time that Sideways tricked Hot Shot. When Hot Shot was distracted, Sideways kicked the Star Saber out of his hand, and grabbed it. Hot Shot told us later how the minicons struggled to get away, how scared they'd been…

But that hadn't lasted long. The very next time we saw Starscream, Sonar, Runway, and Jetstorm were following right behind him willingly. He wasn't even holding onto them or anything, but they still made no efforts to get away. Whenever he spoke to them, they listened. Even now, when they're back in the base with Hot Shot again, they seem to prefer Starscream to him.

The thing is, minicons aren't like people. They don't focus on what they see on the outside, like others would. They see inside, right to someone's heart heart. I know this will sound kind of weird, but maybe the minicons are seeing something in Starscream the rest of us are missing? That must be it.

That's why I think there's good in him. I know there is. I can feel it.

I believe in him.

My deep thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind me. "Somebody! Help me!"

I turned around to see who it was. It was Fred, who, if you remember, had put on that ridiculous space suit before. Well, I guess he forgot to take it off, because he had his finger to the helmet and was scratching really desperately.

"What's the problem?" asked Rad.

"My nose is itchy, I can't scratch it!" Fred whined.

"Seriously Fred?" asked Andrea, making a face. Everyone was staring at Fred now.

"So, why don't you take your helmet off?" asked Rad, making the same face as Andrea.

"Oh, will you goofs be quiet?" I asked, grinning "You guys shouldn't have put on those space suits in the first place." Boys can be so predictable sometimes.

"But if I can't touch my face, how am I gonna eat my lunch, huh?" he whined some more. Behind us, I heard Optimus laugh. I like it when Optimus laughs. He doesn't very often, but it sounds nice when he does. As leader of the autobots, he never gets a whole lot of time to relax. Hearing him now, it helped to get rid of some of the tension.

Still, I couldn't help but continue to worry about Jetfire, and Starscream, too. What they were going through, and whether they could make it on their own. Even better, maybe they could learn to work as a team.

I really hoped so.


	6. Fall

**Fall**

Starscream

"Megatron! Where are you?! Megatron!" I shouted at the top of my voice. Nothing. No sign of him anywhere. Where was he? Probably off hiding somewhere, the coward. I gritted my teeth together as a well of hatred swelled up in me. He wouldn't escape from me this time, I would not let him. Jetfire was gone, I realized. Perfect. No autobots around to slow me down. No one could drag my victory away from me this time.

The wind was scorching, and it was everywhere, full of grit and sand. It coated my optics with a scratchy powder. I squinted through the wind and dirt to try and see, but there was nothing _to_ see. Harsh winds kept threatening to blow the Star Saber away. I clenched it tighter in my hand. I couldn't afford to lose the sword now, now that I was so close to victory, but the wind kept blowing it around, threatening to snatch it away.

I hated this planet. No wonder nothing lived here. It wasn't at all like Cybertron. Even Earth's moon was preferable to this. At least the moon didn't have any of this infernal weather. But there was no way in the pit I could ever go back there. Would ever go back. There was nothing for me there now. There was nothing for me anywhere, except, perhaps, Earth. That was where the autobots were, my one chance to get my revenge. The day could not come soon enough.

Earth wasn't too bad really. Cybertron and the moon were always dark; it always appeared to be night. At least Earth was full of light. There was a visible difference between night and day. And of course, there was the girl…

I shot rang out in the distance, catching my attention. I looked up, gasping. When I did, a bunch of sand flew in my mouth. It was still hard to see, but I caught a glimpse of something flying above me. A dark shadow in the back of all the red, yellow, and brown.

I wasn't thinking; there was no time. I flew upward toward the shadow. "At last, I have you Megatron!" I shouted. As the shadow got closer, it came into to focus. I could see it through the whirling dust. And it wasn't Megatron.

At that precise moment, I heard a growl.

"Tidal Wave?" I asked, dumbly, "It's you? Alone?" The overgrown idiot was right in front of me in vehicle mode. How could I have mistaken him for Megatron? What kind of fool was I?

"Starscream…" he snarled. Oh good, he recognized me. Wonderful. I didn't have time for this!

"You're not the one I'm looking for!" I snapped over the whirling sound of the wind, "Where is Megatron?"

"Give me the Star Saber," was the reply. One of the laser turrets on his back swirled around and to face me as he spoke.

"NEVER!" I screamed at him.

He fired a single blast without hesitating. I blocked it with the Saber. Seeing that his weapons would do no good, he transformed and faced me. I shouted in surprise. I tried to get away, but the wind was blowing back and forth, trapping me. It was like trying to swim in clouded water, only worse. At least water didn't coat your optics and get in your throat and scratch you on the way down.

Tidal Wave reached forward and threw a punch. The blow knocked me backwards, towards the surface of the planet. Tidal Wave vanished into the wind. I couldn't see him anymore. I couldn't see anything…

Something hard hit the back of my head, and I blacked out.

Hot Shot

We were bored. Dead bored. Bored out of our minds. Alexis still couldn't get the signal back, so we couldn't even watch and see what was happening on Mars. All we could do was wait around. It was driving me crazy! How can Red Alert and Aurora stand just hanging around the base all the time?

Bored. So very bored.

What did the last minicon have to go and be on Mars for anyway? If it had just stayed on Earth like the others, I could be out looking for it instead of waiting around here. There wasn't even enough risk involved for any real anxiety. Just boredom.

I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

"Aw, I wonder what's going on with Jetfire?" asked Rad after a minute of silence. No doubt he was bored out of his skull too.

"I sure hope he's okay," murmured Alexis. At least _she_ was anxious. It was easy to tell. Ever since we'd lost contact, The girl had never once taken her eyes off the screen.

"Well, I sure hope Starscream isn't doing anything stupid either," I muttered.

"Huh?" all the kids asked at once.

Oops. "I mean," I said trying to cover it up, "Eh heh, I hope he's doing okay!"

They bought it. They all started laughing and smiling like everything was just fine.

From behind me, I thought heard Optimus groan, but maybe that was just my imagination.

Starscream

I was in a pitch black room. There were no windows, no lights. I could barely see. Not that it mattered. It was always night on the moon. I was used to the dark.

What I wasn't used to was the pain. There was pain everywhere. My whole body ached. I didn't understand. Why me? Why the pain? Make it stop.

Something hard slammed into me with a metallic clang, knocking the wind out. It felt like a wall, a metal wall. No, it wasn't the wall. It was the floor. I was on the floor. The pain was so loud; I couldn't think.

I struggled to see, to find some kind of light. My head was spinning, making it difficult to focus. But I did see. I looked up and saw Megatron towering above me. I wanted to scream; I wanted to fight back, but there was too much fear, too much pain. I couldn't move. No sound came out.

I tried to get away, but there was nowhere to go. No one to help me. I felt another blow slam into me, crippling me.

No. _No!_ I had to get out of here! Had to get some air…

I struggled, and the world came back into place.

I squinted. A flurry of static clouded my optics, but I could tell some things. I was back on Mars, not the moon. There were cliffs on both sides of me, and I was in a canyon of some sort. Above me, the sandstorm that had knocked me down here continued to rage, totally oblivious to everything. I was on my back. How long had I been here anyway? I must've hit my head harder than I thought.

My vision cleared completely, though I swore I could see stars in front of my optics for a second. I was still shuddering and gasping, not from hitting my head but from the dream I'd just had. I tried not to think about it. The dark. The feeling of being trapped. The pain…

_Get a grip on yourself, you fool_, I yelled inside my head, _It was only a dream. A nightmare._

A nightmare, certainly, but also my very worst memory.

I pulled myself together and tried to drag myself up against the cliff face, but it was difficult. Huh, that's odd. For a second, I thought I heard someone call my name. Must be hallucinating again.

A moment of panic hit me. Where was the Star Saber? If Tidal Wave had gotten a hold of it, the autobots would never let me hear the end of it. I looked around.

That's when I realized I had an audience.

Runway, Sonar, and Jetstorm were all lined up in front of me, in robot mode. So that's who had called my name. None of them were damaged, but they were all frantic. "Oh, good. You're awake!" chirped Runway, "We were worried sick. You know, you've been out for two hours."

"You didn't look too good either," said Jetstorm, "You looked like you were in a lot of pain."

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Sonar, cautiously.

For some reason, all this fuss irritated me. I was no protoform! Moreover, I was humiliated that they had seen me this way. "I don't need your sympathy!" I spat, "Now leave me alone!"

For a moment, they didn't move. They chattered amongst themselves in voices too low for me to hear. Then, they suddenly turned and ran off, leaving me alone, just as I wished.

The second they were gone, I felt depressed somehow. I stared after them for a second, wondering what to do. Should I call out to them? This was stupid. I had told them to leave after all. I shouldn't be getting all depressed just because they left. But I did feel slightly guilty for snapping at them like that, and I had been a little harsh to Swindle and…

Wait a minute, where was Swindle?

With an icy feeling, I called Swindle inside my head. _Swindle?_

There was no response.

I started to panic. _Swindle? Swindle!_ Where was he? Was he gone? No, that wasn't it. I could still feel him, latched onto my back. Why wasn't he responding? Was he ignoring me? No…

He was asleep! I couldn't believe this. I felt insulted for a second. Was I really that boring? Then I remembered, vaguely, that I had told him to shut up before. Why had I said that? And why had I told the others to leave? I hadn't really wanted them to go. Not really…

"Even the minicons have abandoned me now," I murmured. It wasn't fair. Why did everyone always have to leave me behind? I don't mean just the minicons; it was everyone. Even before I left the decepticons, I was always being left out, left behind. I had been the last to acquire a minicon. Not long before I left, the decepticons had abandoned me on the battlefield. Left me to die.

Why? What had I done to make them hate me so?

I have no idea how long I sat there without moving. Above me, I heard the sandstorm slow to a whisper and stop, so it must've been hours. Pathetic. I knew just sitting here wasn't going to fix anything, but I didn't really care at that moment. I was numb to everything. I sighed.

"I don't even know why I'm here anyway," I muttered to no one. Just me. "All I ever wanted… was a chance to defeat Megatron. Is that so much to ask for? They don't understand what it's like to be a decepticon."

_Still,_ I decided, _I'm gonna make a stand right here, on this planet. I will find Megatron wherever he may be, and I will crush him! _Yes, that was it. I would defeat Megatron. And if not, well, at least I would go down fighting. I had nothing to lose.

I was so caught up in my fury that I hadn't noticed myself doing anything else, but I suddenly became aware of something in my hand. I looked down, and saw a Mars rock. I must've picked it up and crushed it without realizing. Didn't know my own strength. I stared at the rock for a second. It was a pretty greenish color. It sparkled in the sunlight.

I tried to remember… something I'd heard at the autobot base.. about… a souvenir?…

"Here! This way!" came a shout. I looked up to see who had spoken. Sonar, Runway, and Jetstorm came running this way. They were coming back? I was touched… that is, until I saw another minicon following right behind them in vehicle mode. That was strange.

Then I saw Jetfire.

"This where he is?" he asked, looking around. Slag. They had gone to go find Jetfire. Why him? He was the last person I wanted to see. The joy faded abruptly.

Jetfire finally spotted me sitting against the canyon wall. It occurred to me how stupid I must've looked, just sitting there, but he didn't comment. I glanced at him for a second, then looked away. I was hoping he'd get the message and leave. He didn't. "There you are," he said, "I've been looking for you."

He walked over to where I was. "Here," he murmured, "Give me your hand." He held out his hand toward me. Oh, _now _he was trying to be nice. A bit late for that, don't you think?

"Just save it," I said, telling him like it is, "I want to be left alone."

He snorted. "Still as stubborn as ever, I see." _Please, just leave already!_ I pleaded in my head. I was weary and wanted him gone.

"Your mission is to rescue the minicons!" I snapped, "So do it!"

As if on cue, I felt something stirring in my head. _Ahhmm… wha… where? _

_Swindle! _I started. _Where have you been?_

_Sleeping,_ he answered, matter-of-factly. I felt relieved somehow, Swindle was back. He'd returned to me.

He didn't feel the same way. _Uh, where are we? _he asked, _What are we doing here? And… why is Jetfire looking at you like he's about to murder you?_

_Shhh._ I shushed him because I could see he was right. Jetfire was furious.

"Look!" he snapped, "Why don't you just get up off your butt and do your job like you're supposed to?! Help me get that minicon back to Earth!" He made it sound like an order. Ha! That's rich. As if he was in any position to give me orders!

"That's your job!" I yelled back, "My purpose here is to bring down Megatron!"

_Cool it, will ya? _

_Shut up. _I was tired of this, all of it! Jetfire was a fool, he couldn't make me take his orders."You can't possibly understand the humiliation that I've suffered!" I yelled at him.

"You know what?" he asked, "You're right. I don't understand, and I don't want to either." As he was saying this, he took out a pair of handcuffs and grabbed my arm.

"Wha-?" I started to ask. He clamped one end over my wrist. He clipped the other end onto his own arm "What do you think you're doing to me?!" I yelled.

"I'm bustin' ya," he answered, "For the crime of disobeying orders."

"You can't be serious! Get these off me now!" I yelled angrily.

"No can do," said Jetfire, "Like I said: You're busted. All decide whatever you do from now on."

I looked away, disgusted. "You'll pay for this," I vowed.

Swindle was no help. _Aw, Starscream, you're getting arrested? Man, why can't you just be…_

_Not one more word, Swindle. I'm warning you,_ I growled inside my head.


	7. Incident

**Incident**

Andrea

"I've placed Starscream under arrest, and I'm bringin' him in from Mars immediately," said Jetfire. Alexis had gotten the signal back, but not by herself. Jetfire (and Starscream) had exited Mars's atmosphere. Without it, there was nothing to block the radio waves. He told us why he was back so soon before we even had a chance to ask. Not that it would've been all that hard to guess anyway. Starscream was being an idiot, what else was new? I say, we should've arrested him a long time ago for being such an enormous jerk.

I'm pretty sure Alexis could tell what I was thinking (I hate it when she does that) because she shot me a glare that said, _Why don't you just leave him alone? _I don't get what that girl's deal is with Starscream. You'd almost think that she had a cru-

Oh wow! There's one train of thought I really don't want to go down. _There's no way, _I tried to convince myself, _There's no way that could happen. He's a giant killer robot, and she's a human girl. Nothing to worry about. _

I was never very good at lying to myself.

I snapped back to reality just in time to hear Rad ask, "And the minicon?" That's all he said, just those three little words, but Jetfire knew what he was talking about. We all did. "It'll have to wait," was the response.

"What? Are you nuts?" fumed Side Swipe, "We're gonna need the minicon to…"

"That's enough," interrupted Optimus. Side Swipe fell silent. "Go ahead and bring Starscream in right now," he said, addressing Jetfire now. "It's time that he learned a little lesson. Isn't that right, kids?"

Alexis laughed nervously. The rest of us just stared.

"Hey, don't bring us into this," I told him.

* * *

Jetfire

"C'mon, Starscream. Quit struggling," I said.

"Will you just leave me alone?" he snapped back. Inside, I groaned. I was towing Starscream back to Earth, but he wasn't exactly coming quietly. This was so frustrating. I didn't remember him being this much of a pain when he was a decepticon. Then again, we didn't have to put with him all the time.

"Listen to me," I said, tryin' to be patient, "I know the decepticons are used to fighting for themselves, but autobots aren't like that. We function as a team. If one member of our team isn't obeying orders, then the whole group will fall apart, right? Everyone has to do their part; everyone has to help just the same." I tried to talk slowly, thinking that maybe then he'd get it.

He didn't. "I must have Megatron," he muttered.

"You know what? I've had enough!" I snapped, "I'm takin' ya back to Earth, and don't try to stop me!" I was just about fed up with this guy. Because of him, we couldn't even get the minicon! What an idiot.

"Hold on a sec!" he suddenly shouted.

"Save your breath," I told him.

"I see him!" Starscream was getting pretty excited.

I was so sick of this. "Who?" I asked sarcastically, "Megatron?"

"No! The minicon!"

_That _was different. "What?" I asked, astounded. I slowed from a full blast to a slow cruise. Starscream was the first to see the minicon? Didn't see that one coming.

"Over there," he said. "On that asteroid." I looked and saw the one he was talking about. It wasn't an asteroid at all; it was one of Mars's moons! (Mars has two.) Alexis had misread the coordinates! The minicon wasn't on Mars at all. It was on its moon! Normally I would've been mad, but in this case…

For a second, it struck me as odd that Starscream would point out the minicon, because why would he even _care?_ But, I decided not to question it.

"I see it!" I shouted.

"You're going to rescue him, aren't you?" Starscream asked. For some reason, he sounded kind of bitter.

I turned and looked at him for a second. "Let me tell you my personal motto," I said, "VICTROY IS MINE!" I was getting excited, pumped. There was no way we were going home empty handed now! Quickly, I gathered back some extra speed, and we boosted toward the floating rock.

For a couple of seconds, we didn't see anything. Nothing but craters and dust and… wait. Was that a glimmer I just saw?

The answer was yes. Something was glinting and sparkling on the asteroid. There was only one thing it could be. "There it is!" I shouted. "Okay Starscream, when we fly over, you grab it."

He sounded surprised. "You're asking me?" he asked, "Okay." I felt him pass the Star Saber from his left hand to his right hand, closer to me. I hovered closer to the ground. The panel was really close now. We could see its green glow and pentagonal shape. Starscream reached out for it slowly, straining a little bit.

"Careful," I warned him. Some decepticons had a habit of crushing minicon panels to get the minicon to come out. I didn't want to scare the little fella.

Fortunately, Starscream didn't seem to be like that. "Get me a bit closer," he said. The weird thing was, he didn't shout it or demand it or anything. He just said it. I boosted slightly closer to the panel, not wanting to touch the ground. Starscream strained toward it. His hand was hovering right over the panel when It happened.

The minicon panel was starting to glow brighter. There was this sort of rainbow of light, and the panel vanished, revealing a minicon in its place. Starscream had awoken a minicon without even touching it. I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, that's incredible. Normally, a transformer has to be touching a minicon to wake it up. Why had this one responded so quickly.

The minicon that had popped out was bulkier than most. He was red and stared up at Starscream with wide, blue eyes.

We hovered there for a second, just staring in wonder… right before we were interrupted by an explosion of laser fire. "Decepticons!" I shouted. Finally! Except now, we couldn't fight them. Man, I can't ever catch a break.

Both Starscream and I had turned to see who had fired at us. It was Tidal Wave, and he was alone, which was strange. Why hadn't they sent more troops?

That's when it hit. The decepticons had only sent Tidal Wave because they didn't want us to get killed. They wanted something from us.

And now I was cuffed to Starscream. Not good.

Tidal Wave just kept firing, forcing us away from the minicon. The little guy was probably scared out of his mind now. Tidal Wave didn't really seem to be aiming at us, just shooting wildly. Well, to be fair, it was working. We came pretty darn close to being killed every time he fired a shot, which was about 20 times a second.

That's when I heard him speak. "Tidal Wave," he muttered into his com link, "They have the Star Saber and Skyboom shield with them."

That's when I knew we were in trouble.

* * *

Thrust

"It's working!" I cackled. Tidal Wave had the traitor Starscream and that pathetic autobrat on the run! Thanks to my brilliant plan, there was no escape now! Soon, very soon…

My strategy called for patience and waiting for the right moment. Unfortunately for me, Megatron wasn't one to wait. He never had been. "Good," he said, "Let's move out. Come on!" Before he was even done speaking, he ran towards the warp gate.

"Uh, Megatron, sir? Wait a minute!" I called. But he wasn't listening to me. _He never is._ Already he was standing in the warp gate. It glowed for a second, and he vanished.

"He's gone," I muttered, "He's_ so_ difficult sometimes…"


	8. Unexpected

**Unexpected**

Jetfire

This barrage of fire was getting really annoying.

Sure, a couple second ago, it seemed dangerous and risky, and maybe I was actually a little glad for the action. I always liked a good fight now and then. But this wasn't a fight, it was target practice. And we were the targets.

Starscream and I couldn't even be glad that we hadn't been hit. Tidal Wave wasn't trying to hit us; he was just trying to keep us in one place. I had already figured all of this out. They didn't want us dead, not yet at least. Not before they had the Skyboom shield and Star Saber. Their plan was for Tidal Wave to stall us, so that Megatron could come and then…

I didn't mention any of this to Starscream. You know how he gets. If he found out Megatron was coming here, our already low chance for survival would plummet.

Not that I really thought I'd die out here, handcuffed to Starscream within Mars's orbit. I mean c'mon, I'm Jetfire! That would be _stupid!_ That would be _so_ anticlimactic. There's no way Primus would do that to me! I was way too good for that.

So, no I wasn't scared. Just annoyed.

"I can't move like this!" I complained. These cuffs were getting in the way. Having to drag Starscream's extra weight around wasn't helping anything.

"Well, then take these cuffs off me before they get us both killed!" Starscream shouted.

"If I could do that, I would've done it already!" I snapped back. I soon as I said that, I was struck by how stupid it was. Handcuffs you can put on but not take off? If the situation wasn't so desperate, I'd have smacked myself. Or at least whoever made these stupid things.

Meanwhile, Tidal Wave had stopped firing. Seemed like he'd ben drawn away by something else. (The guy's kinda dumb, figures that he'd be easily distracted.) I figured that it was a good thing. That is, 'til I saw what caught his interest.

There, lying in the open, was the poor little minicon we'd been forced to leave all on his own. He was trembling, scared and unsure of what to do. And Tidal Wave had seen him. _And_ he was flying closer and closer by the second.

Starscream and I were forced to look on, numb with horror. We couldn't fly nearly close enough to the minicon to rescue him because Tidal Wave was blockin' us. Tied together like this, the two of us were just one big target. I looked away in frustration. It was over. The decepticons would get the minicon. We'd come all this way for nothing.

And then Starscream shouted, "Fire!"

For a second, I thought he'd been talking to _me._ But when I looked to see if he'd gone completely insane, he wasn't even looking at me. He was looking, pleadingly, at the minicon.

The little guy seemed just as confused as I was. He turned his fear stricken eyes away from Tidal Wave and at us. The little beepin' sound we heard told us that the minicon was trying to talk to us. Even though I couldn't understand him, I knew that Starscream could, and even to my audio receptors, it sounded like he was asking a question.

"I said, 'Fire'!" Starscream shouted back in response.

The minicon said something else.

"We autobots will protect you!" he pledged earnestly, "The decepticons will use you as a tool for war! Trust me!"

"Keep talking Starscream, that's the way," I encouraged. At least, that's what I was saying out loud. What I was thinkin' was, _'_We_?' He said '_we_!' '_We autobots_'! Holy slag. Holy slag. He said, '_We_'! _

Meanwhile, the minicon still hadn't moved. Starscream was getting really desperate. "Don't become a decepticon, save yourself!" he pleaded. "Shoot him down! Fire! FIRE!" He sounded really weird when he was yelling. Weirder than usual even. Like, he was trying to hold back a sob or something.

For one horrible second, I thought Tidal Wave would take the minicon, and we would've come this far for nothing. But then the red minicon's chest started to glow, accompanied by that familiar humming sound, and a brilliant yellow beam shot out. It hit Tidal Wave, who had been hanging right above him.

The minicon _had_ fired at Tidal Wave.

And Tidal Wave was _reeling_ from the shot. Minicons might be small, but they pack a heck of a punch. Looks like Starscream had gotten to him after all. Huh. Who knew he had it in him?

Tidal Wave flew away, trying to circle around again. 'Course, even tied together, Starscream and I were quicker, and we beat him. Faster than you can blink, Starscream grabbed the minicon's arm, and we were out of there. As we flew away, I opened a compartment in my back (I use it for storage. It's not weird.), and he threw him in before something else happened.

"Nice work!" I said, "Rescue mission accomplished!" I almost laughed out loud after that last comment. Imagine: Me! Congratulating Starscream! Irony is a funny thing. This might never happen again!

Except Starscream wasn't listening. He wasn't even looking at me. He had been so focused on rescuing the minicon before, but now it was as if he didn't exist. Instead, he was staring away from us, into the black void. He had a really weird look on his face, too. Like, if you have a dog, and you drop a piece of food on the floor. That's what his intent focus reminded me of.

"What is it?" I asked, a little creeped out. He didn't answer. He didn't have to. At that instant, I saw for myself.

Megatron.

He was right there. Right in front of us. He had the Requiem Blaster with him.

And Starscream was starting toward him.

Slag; we were screwed.

How the pit had he even gotten here? He must've used the warp gate. We might've driven away Tidal Wave, but we hadn't done it fast enough. Now that Megatron was here, there'd be no quick getaway for us.

_Y'know,_ said Comettor, inside my head, _If you hadn't handcuffed Starscream, this wouldn't be a problem. _

_Well, I'm sorry!_ I snapped back, _Maybe you would've rather stayed on Mars?_ But deep down, I knew he was right. Being on the red planet, under the cover of the sand, would've been preferable to this situation. But how long would it have taken for Starscream to leave, then? Maybe if I had just left him there…

On this train of thought, I got another mental scolding from Comettor.

Through all this, Starscream's focus was entirely on Megatron. Of course. I was still tethered to him (Starscream, not Megatron), but do you think he cared? Next thing I knew, there was a sharp tug on my wrist as Starscream started forward, Star Saber at the ready. "Megatron," he whispered. It wasn't a challenge. More like a reflection. This was it. His moment for revenge. He'd been waiting for this for so long…

And he was going to drag me along with him.

"Now I will finish him off for good!" he shouted. The guy was so focused, I doubted he even realized how ridiculous the two of us must've looked. I mean, we were handcuffed together. What d'ya think that probably looks like?

"No chance!" I told him, "We have to turn back." For all the good it would do. _This sucks,_ I thought. Every time I think we can finally leave, something else happens. And that something's name is Starscream.

Megatron was not helping. "Stand and fight, you coward," he said, brandishing the blaster. Terrific, he said the "C" word. No way was Starscream going to back off now. And Megatron wasn't stupid; he knew that, too. Cheater.

"Now I will finish him off for good!" Starscream vowed.

The guy must be nuts! There's no way either of us would survive a fight while we were tied together like this! "No way!" I told him, "We're leaving!" Starscream still wouldn't budge. He must be suicidal. That's it. That's the only explanation I could think of. No way anyone could really be that determined, could they?

My audio receptors were picking up a distant chattering sound coming from Starscream. From the sound, I guessed that Starscream's minicon must be yelling at him, too. That got me thinking. Alexis, you know Alexis? She thought that Starscream had a soft spot for minicons. At the time, I'd thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. If that really was true, and he really wasn't going to listen to me, he'd _at least_ listen to _them._ So why wouldn't he?

The minicons. I'm not usually the one to get sentimental, but I suddenly became very conscious of the small, red scared little thing inside me. That was the whole point of our war wasn't it? To protect them? Swindle, Comettor, and the little new guy, they all needed our help. We couldn't let them down.

I saw today that Alexis was at least partially right. If nothing else, Starscream knew what our mission was. I don't think I'll ever forget the way he called out to the minicon on Mars's moon. _"We autobots,"_ he'd said. But that all flew out the window as soon as Megatron showed up. Why? Was Starscream really putting his priority for revenge over his mission? How stupid. How sad.

But the guy definitely has potential, I'll give him that. Maybe, with time and patience, _a lot_ of patience, he could really become a full-fledged autobot. Then he could fight for all the right reasons, not just for revenge. Who knows? Maybe he could be our best soldier. Maybe.

But before that could happen, I needed to get us outta here.

Hold on. There _was_ a way for us to make it out of here alive! I had the Skyboom Shield, after all. I could just hold it up like this, and…

…Wait a second. Something wasn't quite right here. Understanding clicked in my head as I realized the obvious, painful truth. I had the Skyboom Shield. Starscream had the Star Saber. Megatron had the Requiem Blaster. That was all three weapons! All nine minicons! All gathered together in one spot! Megatron had had this all planned out. Now that the sword, shield, and gun were all in one spot, the stakes were that much higher. If we lost here, we might never win again.

The next thing that happened occurred so fast that I'm not sure how I caught it. All in one second, Starscream held out the sword in front of him, ready to face off Megatron. I held the shield out in front of us, ready to NOT fight and NOT die. And Megatron, way out of the range of Starscream's sword but still within firing range, held the gun toward us. That's when the glowing started.

Really big, bright glowing, too. The sudden flare was yellow, golden yellow. Like, we had our own personal star right in front of us. I was taken off guard a little bit. Where was this light coming from? Then I saw the source: the weapons. All three of them were glowing like the sun in the Earth sky.

The light glared over my optics, making it hard to see. It was the weirdest thing. None of the weapons had done anything like this before. Starscream seemed just as bewildered as I was; he was gaping at the sword, dumbstruck.

Through the yellow burst and my overloaded optics, I thought I saw Thrust flying in our direction. What the heck was that pinhead doing here? Ah, that lousy decepticreep probably organized this whole thing. But had he known about _this?_

The weird stuff didn't stop there. The minicons were glowing brighter and brighter by the second. I was getting a really weird sensation from them, too. I could actually feel power rippling off of the shield, through me. Comettor could also feel it. More than me, even. He was getting really excited, chittering nonsense into my head. It made it hard to think.

"What's going on!?" I snapped, through the mayhem, "What is this?"

Unlike me, Megatron didn't seem fazed by any of this at all. He even seemed pleased, like this was the plan all along. "And now for the moment we've all been waiting for!" he proclaimed.

Meanwhile, the light kept getting brighter. I was totally blinded. The rippling power coming off the weapons was materializing as solid static electricity. It was actually shocking me, creating a painful sensation. There was no way I was going to try to get rid of that shield, with Megatron right there, but even if I had wanted to it would've been no use. My hand was stuck to the shield, my servos gripping it against my will. Even if I had wanted to let go, I wouldn't have been able to.

From the muffled shrieks coming from Megatron and Starscream, I could tell they were going through the same thing. I realized Megatron must've known that _something_ would happen if he gathered the three weapons together, but he couldn't have known about _this _specifically. He'd sounded to triumphant before, but now he was moaning in pain. Just like the rest of us.

It didn't improve any more from there. The electricity was getting stronger along with the light. At this voltage, I don't have any doubts that a human would've fried, and it wasn't any picnic for us either. Believe me.

I suddenly became conscious of a feeling of connection. You know what I'm talking about? No you don't, so I'll tell ya. I felt connected to the shield, like it was a part of my body. An extra limb. And, through some sort of weird universal spiritual power or something, I felt the same thing happening to the two decepticons near me and their weapons. We were all connected together. And I could feel the connection spreading, like tendrils, throughout the space around us. Like I had just gained a seventh sense, the whole universe was mapped out for me, and I became aware of every star, every planet, every comet or any other mass that existed in this great big world of ours. I had never experienced everything like it.

Through it all, Comettor's noise climbed louder and higher until it wasn't just noise anymore, but singing. His voice soared into one note that rose to an overpowering octave. It really wasn't _bad_ or anything to listen to, but this, along with the connection and the power and the pain, made me feel overwhelmed.

I remember thinking, vaguely, that I'd heard singing like that before somewhere. Recently, too. But where? That was my last coherent thought before my mind was totally lost to the whirling, golden power all around me.

Then suddenly, like a match being blown out, the singing stopped, the power ebbed away, the light faded instantly into blackness, and I was out cold.


	9. Spark

**Spark**

Andrea

"Jetfire!" Alexis shouted. "Starscream! What's the matter?! W-what's happening down there?!"

The screen didn't bother to answer her. It just spluttered static and acted completely useless. As always. It's time like these I started to think that maybe the autobots needed a new computer. It seemed like there was always something wrong with this one.

Once again, we'd lost the signal to Jetfire's com. You probably figure we'd be used to this kind of thing by now. It certainly happened often enough. Except this time, they weren't even on Mars, and since when do sandstorms happen in space? None of us even knew what was going on up there. Everything had seemed perfectly fine. Jetfire and Starscream were just turning around and coming back home because Starscream had somehow managed to screw things up. (Again.) The radio had been silent, but at least we still had Jetfire's signal. At least we could still tell where they were and call them if we needed to.

But then, Jetfire's com link had crackled on, like he was trying to call us. We strained really hard to listen, but we couldn't make heads or tails of what we were hearing. Jetfire had sounded really… not quite panicky… intense, that's the word. Like, he was in trouble, and, for once, he knew it. But the weird thing is, he didn't sound like he was trying to talk to _us._ He was yelling _something_ at _somebody,_ but even though all we could make of it was this gargling sound, we knew it wasn't addressed to anyone on Earth. Maybe his com link had clicked on by accident? Whatever. It didn't change the fact that both Starscream and Jetfire were in deep trouble; we could tell that much. The last thing we heard before it switched back off again was a broken up noise that sounded a lot like a cannon blast.

And that's when we lost the signal. Completely. Yeah, that's not good. Not at all.

So that's what we were doing now. Standing around the crummiest alien computer ever, waiting anxiously for we-didn't-know-what, not even knowing if our friend (and Starscream) was alive. This was not one of my better days.

"Was there another storm?" asked Billy, after Alexis was done trying, fruitlessly, to call them.

"_In space?"_ I asked him, making a face. Apparently, not everyone knows there's no sand in space. Or wind, for that matter.

"No!" said Alexis, agreeing with me, "I think something else happened!" Out of all of us, she was probably the most worried, and, though I hated to admit it, I knew why. We were all worrying over the safety of one person; she was concerned about two.

"What?" asked Hot Shot, "Decepticons?"

That brought on another round of uneasy silence. Everyone had been thinking that, of course, but no one had said it out loud. No one wanted to consider it, I think. Jetfire and Starscream were only two people; it's likely they would've been outnumbered. If they had been attacked, none of the autobots could come to their aid, since the two of them were the only ones who could fly. Plus, Jetfire had a tendency to chew more than he could swallow when it came to fights. He'd probably make the situation even worse! It really wasn't helping that he was up there alone with Starscream…

Wait a minute! Alone with _Starscream?_ What if he had betrayed Jetfire? I started suddenly. Augh! That was probably it! Starscream had waited 'til they were alone and out of earshot, and then…

I was just about to voice (what I thought were) my completely rational fears, when the radio crackled on again.

"Jetfire here. Over," it spluttered. We all sighed with relief. Yup, this was definitely Jetfire's voice. He was okay! True, he sounded a bit worn out, but not hurt in any way.

I realized, with a lukewarm, uncomfortable feeling, that Starscream couldn't have attacked Jetfire, because there's no doubt Jetfire would've said something about it right away. I could already imagine the speech he would give, littered with what-the-hecks and I-told-you-sos. They probably just ran into some other trouble. I put my hand to my forehead, slightly embarrassed about my paranoia. I mean, to attack your only ally? To leave yourself alone with a swarm of potential enemies after you? Not even Starscream was that dumb.

"What just happened?" Alexis said, asking what we were all thinking.

"Everybody relax," replied Jetfire, still sounding unusually tired, "We had some trouble, but we're okay now. We managed to rescue the minicon, and we're on our way back to you."

Hot Shot and I exchanged a look. We were both thinking the same thing: _They found the minicon? But, wasn't it supposed to be on Mars? Weren't they coming back? Why was it in space? And… what kind of trouble did they have, anyway?_ I looked away from Hot Shot, frowning. I was going to have a few questions for Jetfire when he got here.

Alexis was still anxious. "And Starscream?" she asked, uneasily. _What, him again?_

There was a slight pause. "Who? Starscream?" Jetfire asked, pretending to be confused. "Ah, I don't know anyone by-"

"Very funny," came a gruff voice over the radio. We all laughed, including Jetfire. The second speaker was less amused. So Starscream was safe, too. _Happy now, Alexis?_ I thought, bitingly. And she was. I could tell.

It suddenly occurred to me that Jetfire had never joked around with Starscream like that before. Even if it was only a really quick moment, it still happened, and it was still the first time they were together without going at each other's throats. Maybe something other than "trouble" had happened up there? I guessed I would never know for sure, which irritated me. I hate not knowing.

At any rate, I guess it doesn't matter what went down on Mars. The main thing is, today was yet another victory for the autobots. Nobody had gotten hurt, the bad guys had been defeated (possibly), and what might have been the last unclaimed minicon was successfully rescued. It was all good.

But, seriously. What_ had_ happened up there?

* * *

Megatron

There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. What an odd feeling it is, to be completely submerged in nothing. To see only blackness. To know that no matter how far I reached or where, that I would never touch anything. To be completely weightless. That's what it means to be nowhere.

My present state of mind matched the space around me, in the sense that it was completely black. I tried to think, to remember where I was or how I had gotten there, but I couldn't. There was an almost solid fog in my head that prevented that. Several times I tried to comprehend what was happening around me, but each time, my mind failed, and I eventually gave up.

Now that I think of it, I suppose that I wasn't completely awake. There was my present state of mind, yes, but I also couldn't move. My body wouldn't respond to anything I wanted. I wondered vaguely what the problem was. In my confused state of mind, I considered for a brief moment the possibility that I might be dead. I instantly rejected that thought. No, that couldn't be. When you die, your spark fades, and you lose your body. That certainly wasn't the case with me. My body was the one thing I could still feel. What had happened?

"Megatron, come in." I heard a distant voice. I couldn't recognize it, but something in my head stirred faintly. This voice… why did it make me want to hurt something?

It continued. "Megatron! Where are you? Megatron!" On that last repeat of my name, I saw stars above me. The universe came back into place. I was awake. At least, more than I had been a second ago.

"Where am I?" I asked, dazed. "What just happened?" I tried to get up, but I discovered that there was nothing to get up off of. Ah, that's right. I was in space. Above the fourth planet, yes. And Starscream… a small amount of fury welled up in me. Starscream, that traitor, he'd been here, too. Was he the one calling me? No, that couldn't be right.

I looked over in the direction the signal had come from. Two transformers, I recalled vaguely that they were my soldiers, were coming towards me. They both stopped when they were near me, the smaller one in front.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said. "That huge explosion of energy blasted us." Energy? Oh, right. I remembered, now. The jet in front of me suddenly became more excited. "It's true!" he said, sounding pleased about something. "The uniting of the three weapons creates tremendous power!"

It was taking me a while to remember who this person was. Ah, yes, this was Thrust. This whole attack had been his idea, I recalled. He'd wanted to bring all nine of the minicons together. And once he had, the energy had struck us all and left me disoriented. So that meant…

I turned away from Thrust and stared toward the direction of Earth. Though we were far, I could still make it out from where I was. If we really had united the weapons, that meant that Starscream had been here. He and… that one autobot whose name I could not recall, no matter how hard I tried. I felt another surge of irritation. Starscream might have been here before, but he was here no longer. Had Thrust really let him just slip away? Fool.

"Ah, I see…" I murmured, still somewhat dazed. I turned away from the Earth and back at the stooge. "Well, let us return to the lunar base," I said.

"Yes, sir!" said Thrust. Already he and the other decepticon, who I now remembered as Tidal Wave, were stretching, their bodies disappearing before my eyes.

I gave the Earth one last hateful glance before I, too, disappeared.

* * *

Alexis

As soon as we found out that both our autobots were okay, we all ran to the launch area to welcome them. But, even though I hurried, I still wasn't the first one there. Somehow, Optimus had beat everyone else.

He and Jetfire were already talking when I arrived. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I did start to suspect something was up, since all I caught of their conversation was this:

"I'll have a word with Starscream, and let him know not to say anything," Jetfire was saying.

"Good," said Optimus.

And that's more than a little suspicious.

I turned behind me and saw Andrea. I knew right away that she had just heard the same thing I did by the look on her face. It was her "interrogation" look, and I knew Jetfire was going to get the brunt of it later. I felt sorry for him, but only a little. I was pretty sure he could handle it.

Almost immediately after Optimus walked away, Carlos, Fred, and Billy ran up to Jetfire eagerly. There was someone specific that I wanted to talk to, but I stayed for a minute to watch this scene. It was bound to be funny.

Carlos was the first to speak. "So what was outer space like?" he asked, eagerly.

"How was Mars?" asked Billy.

"Can you scratch your nose in outer space?" asked Fred. Then he paused. "W-wait, do you have a nose?" He sounded confused. Somehow.

"Right here, Brainiac!" shouted Jetfire, pointing to his face plate. His eyes were grinning. "You shouldn't be so eager to show off what you don't know." Actually, Jetfire didn't really have much of a face at all, and I didn't see anything that even vaguely resembled a nose. But, I didn't say anything.

"So, did you bring back a souvenir?" asked Carlos. Oh, here it was. The moment of truth.

"A ha, sorry guys. The souvenir shops on Mars were all… closed," he shrugged, as if this was no fault of his. Ouch. I liked Jetfire, I really did. But he could be a real jerk, sometimes.

Billy and Carlos both groaned. Fred didn't. He just there for a second before asking, meekly, "Will they be open tomorrow?"

See? I told you it'd be funny.

Grinning, I ran up to Jetfire and interrogated him myself before Andrea could. Then, I turned away and searched for the real reason I'd come down here.

It didn't take me long to find him.

Starscream was sitting on the floor, his back against the right wall of the warp gate. His eyes had a far off, distant gaze. He wasn't smiling; he never does. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen him smile, _really smile,_ before, but he didn't seem quite as angry as he normally did. He seemed quieter, more thoughtful.

Near him, the minicons clustered. I spotted his red own minicon, Swindle, among them. There was also another red one that I'd never seen before. I assumed this was the one they had just rescued. The only one out of the group who I could understand was Sureshock. I heard him say the name "Firebot" over and over. So now I knew the name of the new one. Firebot.

_The last minicon,_ I thought to myself. _This is the last one._ What would happen to the autobots now? Now that the long hunt was finally over?

I walked over, past where they were, right up to Starscream. Swindle looked up from what he was doing, and glanced at me. Obviously, I couldn't understand Swindle's language. He was, after all, Starscream's minicon. But, that didn't mean I couldn't read his expression. He was staring at me pretty hard, like he was trying to figure out a difficult math problem. I could guess all too well what he was thinking, but I went on anyway.

I stopped when I was right beside Starscream. He didn't move or give any other sign when I approached him, so I guessed he must not have noticed. "Starscream?" I called up to him.

I don't know what I was expecting. Probably a harsh word, like earlier that day. I think I was expecting him to tell me to get lost. Instead, he turned towards me quietly. His eyes had lost that sharp, frustrated look they had earlier. Now, they looked so distant. So thoughtful.

"Yes? What is it?" he asked. His tone was quieter, too. Almost soft. This was promising.

Since he seemed fine with me talking to him, I continued. "I hear you convinced the minicon to join the autobots," I said, repeating what Jetfire had told me a second before. I knew it had to be true because there's no way Jetfire would make up something like that. He'd made it pretty clear how he felt about Starscream, and he'd _never_ compliment him unless he had a _really_ good reason.

But Starscream didn't confirm or deny it. He just silently waited for me to go on. His yellow-orange optics stayed fixed on me. Actually, they made me feel really small, but at least I had his attention.

"I know you like the minicons," I told him, recalling the kindness he usually showed them. "Which is why, in my opinion, you belong on the autobot side." I was finished. That was all I wanted to say to him. I waited.

For a second, Starscream didn't move. He continued to stare at me silently. His expression actually matched Swindle's perfectly. It was one of puzzlement, one of someone who was faced with a difficult question and couldn't find the answer. Then, his eyes narrowed. "Spare me," he growled, getting up.

He removed his eyes from my gaze and turned to walk away. "My mission is to bring Megatron down," he threw back at me without looking back. "That's it!" At that point, he was already halfway out the door. He quickly stormed out and was gone.

Swindle started to follow, threw one last searching glance at me, and transformed and drove after Starscream. I stared after them both, then glanced dejectedly at the floor and closed my eyes.

Darn, I thought I'd really reached him this time. I wished so hard that he would become one of us. I think he'd be happier here, I really do. Why did he always push us away? Was he really hurting that much? Was there a pain inside him that I could never reach?

Or… I considered the awful possibility. Maybe, Starscream really did mean everything he said… Maybe he really was here just to beat Megatron. Maybe… maybe there was no good in him, after all. _No! _I pushed those thoughts out of my head. There _was_ good in him. There _was!_ I couldn't give up on him now! Now that I'd come so close…

I opened my eyes, determined once again.

When I did, something sparkled in the corner of my vision.

I looked over, curious. The thing was right next to the spot where Starscream had been sitting just a second ago. Do you know what it was? Do you? I'll tell you what it was: it was proof. Proof that Starscream did have good in him, and it was sitting there in front of me.

I was looking at a rock. That's right, a rock. The most beautiful rock I'd ever seen. Actually, there were several. One big one and many small ones. One for each of us…

I gasped in delight and picked up the one closest to me. It was small, smaller than the palm of my hand, even. It was a reddish brown color, but I could see shiny green crystals poking their heads out of it. It winked at me when I turned it back and forth in the light.

You might be laughing at me, getting so excited over a rock. I realize I might sound a little silly. Whatever. I don't care. I had a reason to be excited.

Starscream had brought those rocks back. For us.

I knew from the reddish color that it had to be from Mars. Only Jetfire and Starscream had ever gone up there, and I had already seen what an _amazingly generous_ soul Jetfire was. That left only Starscream. He must've heard the boys asking for a souvenir and had brought one for all of us.

I felt a small bit of triumph tug at me. I looked and around for the others and called. "Hey, Carlos!"

Carlos looked up. I waited and watched his face closely, wanting to see his reaction. It was exactly what I was hoping for. His face lit up when he saw the rock in my hand and the cluster of rocks at my feet. "Hey, what have you got there!?" he asked, excited.

His shout attracted the attention of everyone else. (All the humans, anyway. The transformers had all left by this point.) They all reacted pretty much the same way that Carlos did. They all ran over to where I was, totally thrilled. When you want something, _really want something,_ and end up disappointed, it's that much more gratifying when you finally get it.

Last of all, in the very back, was Andrea. She _wasn't _smiling, and she _wasn't _totally thrilled. I could tell she didn't have any idea what all the fuss was about. I watched her face closely. She was the real test, after all.

She walked up to the circle, picked up a rock, and stared at it. Just, stared. That was all. Ever since Starscream had come here, she'd worn an almost permanent scowl, but now I saw it smooth out and soften. She kept staring at her rock, lost in some emotion I couldn't read. Then she turned her head up and stared at the doorway, the same way that Starscream had left by moment ago. Her expression had changed. It wasn't really happy, per se, more like it was awed. She had this incredulous expression like she had just seen something mysterious, something wonderful. Something that she'd thought couldn't be.

I smiled again. Her reaction was exactly what I'd been hoping for, too.

So, maybe I couldn't completely reach Starscream. Maybe we both still had a way to go before that chasm was closed. But, for him today, and this moment, too, something had changed. It was a small thing, and not entirely obvious, but something had definitely been set in motion. A flickering of something warm and welcoming. A tiny movement, deep inside.

A small spark.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

_It's over!_

Thank you very much for reading. Even though this piece isn't my favorite, it'll have a special place in my heart because it was the first fan fic I ever did. And you guys seemed to like it. That's all that really matters I guess. (Consequently, I'm the type of person who finds it hard to be completely satisfied with anything I create, so there you go.) Maybe now that's it over, more people will leave reviews… Please?

Wow, this is the first fan fic I ever finished. (It is the first one I ever did ever, but still…) I started this back in summer and now it's finished. *gazes into the distance**eye glitter*

No, I'm not doing another episode. Don't even ask me that.

I know I've left a lot of the conflicts I created unresolved. Andrea's was sort of solved, but not really, and there wasn't even an implication about Supernova's internal struggle. More of that stuff, who the characters are and their eventual story arcs, will eventually be covered in The Third Side. (So maybe you people will read it now.) At this rate, Third Side is going to be at least 10x as long as this one was. I'm not sure how to feel about that…

Well, enjoy! See you next time!


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